RoyalDude wrote:Higgins and Malhotra have been our 2 worst forwards on ice to date.

This is why your opinion will never be taken seriously.

Here's a guy who was our most consistent forward not named Sedin last year, and is one of the hardest workers on a hard working team. And it takes you four games to decide he's a bum worthy of the pressbox? Four games in a year with no pre-season, after Higgins didn't play in Europe and came in completely cold? The first four competitive hockey games he's played since April 22nd of last year? And those four games overrule the 115 games he played for us previously, since being acquired?

RoyalDude wrote:Higgins is proving right now why he quickly wears out his welcome with teams becoming one of the most well travelled journeyman's next to Mike Sillinger.

Topper wrote:He declares Coho a success based upon a single game line score of a game he didn't see and then comes back with this.

Good grief you have Hodgson on the Brain....

Hodgson is "progressing" into a very good player which is what I said all along he would be.

You on the other hand declared him a bust before the start of last season and said we should move him ASAP before the rest of the league realized how crap he was.

Good thing you were wrong or no Zack Kassian.

Pot, ya know I dig your opinion but why do you want Gillis to use the Calgary Flame model, put a whole bunch of Malhotra's and Higgins around a superstar or two, the Sedins and Iginla and totally neglect building within, drafting well and developing?

and btw, Higgins sucked in the playoffs against the Kings, I wasn't talking the last 4 games. But hey, every team needs their Mike Sillingers and Ryan Johnsons and I guess Higgins is that guy

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? - Plastics." - The Graduate

Agreed, but if you watch Burrows play out there, he is like a mini-Hank. He has been the third Sedin for so long he thinks offensively like them. He was routinely making, what would have been, great passes and awesome setup plays all night. The problem was Higgins and Hansen were never there. The Sedin game is organic, it is structured, but organic. They just find each other and Burrows gelled with them and learned how to find them and be where they needed him to be. Hansen has had minimal time with the Twins, Higgins has had next to none. They are support players and are used to playing with centers who can't distribute the puck like Henrik, and so they don't think outside the box as readily, consequently they go first to the places where a safe play can be made that helps maintain puck possession rather than to a scoring area where the average center won't be able to hit them easily with a pass and so won't even try. Burrows is also at the center position for the first time ever, he's not an elite passer, but he will still try and make those plays because that's what the brothers do, and defenders aren't expecting that kind of stuff from a line with Hansen and Higgins on the wing and Burrows a first time center. But for now that line will struggle and take some time to get traction and chemistry. As an aside, Burrows with Raymond works well. If not for the defficiency at center right now I would like to see Vigneault use Schreoder between Bur and MayRay and see what transpires.

The Ducks were horrible.

True, but they were good in the first period and the Schneider had to be better to let the Canucks get their skates under them. Then once Vancouver was skating Anaheim took a penalty, then they took another, and another, and another. All of their penalties were the result of playing undisciplined hockey, and Bruce Boudreau is going to be having fits as he works with this roster that is full of Carlyle coached thugs. Every youngster that played in Anaheim under Carlyle's tenure has grown as a player into a short fused poor sport. Many of the penalties Vancouver didn't even have to work to draw. If the NHL is keen on policing games the way the rulebook writes them, then teams like Anaheim are in trouble and teams like Vancouver will really benefit. Alos, Anaheim has a nucleus of Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan, Selanne, and Koivu. After that they thin out somewhat, and their defense is nothing to write home about. Vancouver moved the puck well all night, they are quite capable of doing what they did to the Ducks to at least half the teams in the league, especially if the officiating we've seen so far this year stays the course.

Vigneault sending Schreoder home after the first rookie mistake.

Normally I'm death on AV and his coaching philosophies, but in this case I would like to point out that Schreoder has already made several "rookie mistakes" out there. His ice time hasn't been cut. This is the same for Kassian. Both guys are the prototypical player for AV to hammer the confidence out of, both have played well, but they haven't been perfect by any stretch of the imagination. My only complaint about AV's handling of these guys is on special teams. Kassian is clicking so well with the Sedins right now, and he's such a big, strong, guy, that I think having Hansen on the PP with the Twins is a big mistake. Burrows saw PP time with the first unit last night, but I think Kassian should be getting more with them. Schreoder should be centering the second unit at this point, especially at times like late in the game last night. Other than that I got nothing bad to say about that part of AV's coaching method. Shocking, I know.